Valérie Befve takes over at the helm of Dassault group vineyards

alérie Befve, who has been marketing director at Vignobles Dassault since 2018, has achieved a new milestone in the group by succeeding Romain Depons as managing director of the Vignobles Dassault operating company S.E.V.D. The subsidiary company reports to Dassault Wine Estates based in Saint-Emilion for management of Châteaux Dassault (Grand Cru Classé) and La Fleur.

According to a press statement, Depons is leaving to embark on “personal projects” after “over twenty years’ work devoted to the Saint-Emilion properties and defined by a quest for increasingly stringent technical quality, the development of vineyard sites through the acquisition of Châteaux La Fleur, Faurie de Souchard and Trimoulet and the building of a new winery”.

As she assumes her new role, Befve aims to continue the same high quality strategy and is “intent on bolstering sales growth and enhancing price points”, adds the statement. She has always taken part in winemaking, maturation and blending tastings and therefore has the technical background required to take over the reins at Dassault’s Saint-Emilion properties.

After spending seven years as a sales manager with the Accor hotel group, Befve then “returned to her winegrowing roots by acquiring two vineyard properties in Saint-Emilion and Castillon-la-Bataille along with a wine trading company in the village of Saint-Emilion”, continues the statement.